Wednesday - February 03, 2010
REWARDING BAD BEHAVIOR LEADS TO MORE OF THE SAME WITH LOWER STANDARDS THE RESULT
This has NOTHING to do with this post but my mind won’t let go of something.
Brit election I think in May AND ..... the conservative numbers are not as large as they were a few months ago. Not that the cons here are all that much to brag about but at least they are not Labour (Party). It is scary beyond words at the possibility of another leftist Labour Party govt., especially with that screaming loon, Harriet Harperson, Comrade Commissar of Equality. Also ... Gordon Brown, the current PM, is so desperate that he has announced that he will push to extend the vote to .... 16 year olds. SWEET 16
So that’s off my chest, now back to our regular posting schedule.
I’m posting this editorial because first it makes interesting points and also because it falls right into something Wardmama here at BMEWS has commented on.
Back home in the USA you might not know who the ballplayer is that’s referred to here but really that doesn’t matter. For a frame of reference think Tiger Woods. Pretty much the same thing but the twist with this disreputable fellow is, not being satisfied with cheating on his wife, he had an affair with the girlfriend of a close friend and team mate. Some friend. And his wife btw is no bow-wow either. Sure, as a male I understand needs and drives etc. But surely there should be limits or a code of honor or ... ? I’m looking for another word here. Fidelity? And oh yeah. The guy is also captain of his team. So now the team is split between those who “understand” and don’t care, and those who think it might be normal to cheat but not steal a friend’s girlfriend, and all the rest.
I think Miss Pearson and Wardmom nailed it well. Rewarding bad behavior only encourages more of the same and while that’s going on, the standards keep getting lower and lower.
This toxic WAG virus is infecting our youngBy Allison Pearson
Last updated at 8:06 AM on 03rd February 2010Every night, my son falls asleep with John Terry. Tucked up under his Chelsea duvet, wearing his Chelsea pyjamas, Tom dreams of being captain of his favourite team - dogged, doughty, rich, an invincible defender, an England legend.
Oh, and a liar, a cheat and a sexually incontinent slimeball. The Small Boy doesn’t know about that bit yet, though I’m finding it increasingly hard to swipe the morning papers before he sees them.
Following his affair with Vanessa Perroncel, a family friend and underwear model - what else? - there are calls for Terry to stand down as England captain.
Fans are worried that tensions between Terry and Wayne Bridge, Miss Perroncel’s former boyfriend, will damage team morale during the World Cup in June.
Let’s be practical here, folks. If England players were to be excluded on the grounds of crude or ungentlemanly conduct, who would be left on the pitch? The manager, that’s who.
Wayne Bridge has been cast as the poor, wronged bloke in this seedy story. But, according to Shalimar Wimble, one of Terry’s Trollops who have come tottering out of the gutter in their six-inch stilettos, it was to a house owned by Bridge that the England captain took Wimble for regular sex sessions.
Looks like Wayne was more than happy to aid and abet his mate’s rampant infidelity. Until it was his WAG that Terry bagged.
Posted by peiper
on 02/03/2010 at 10:23 AM
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Permalink • Thursday - January 28, 2010
Judge blocks name of player who cheated on wife, MSM knickers in a twist. Boo-Hoo
The headline reads:
Courts mask football star who cheated on his wife.
As usual, no amount of searching on my part and it’s been a long time, finds the damn link to the story. Written by the Telegraph’s “Chief Reporter, it says in print. However, they don’t have the story on line that I can find. But never mind. It’s only a line or two by the media and disingenuous lawyers that have me seeing red.
Ok so another guy in sports has cheated. So? Outside of nothing more then prurient interest, who really cares?
When the Woods story was all over the place some weeks ago, there was good reason for BMEWS to mostly ignore the boring tale. Or is that last word spelled another way? Thing is, how many folks really care about that stuff?
Well, here’s the story with another player, unknown and un-named by court order. And that’s the story. The court order blocking the press from naming him publicly under “human rights” laws.
Newspapers and their lawyers naturally enough have accused the courts of restricting free speech and oh naturally let us never forget the words carved in stone. The public right to know. Oh BS! The lawyers are saying it’s “a privacy law through the back door.” Well good and it’s time has come. I doubt it’ll last but good for now.
Some may not agree and see this as some sort of first step down a slippery slope. Right? Well now, here is their argument and I know you will see how bogus it is.
Who are these lawyers and media think they are kidding? Surely ppl are not really this stupid. Some yeah, I understand that. Just those who can’t see thru this hype.
Here’s a tiny bit of what the paper had to say. It’s this line I take so much issue with.
Many sportsmen are able to earn vast sums from image rights and advertising by exploiting their clean-cut public persona.
I say BS to that. It isn’t true. What is being exploited is their action on the playing field. The runs scored or tackles made or passes received or completed or goal posts defended and even bones broken and don’t fans just love to see some of these tough guys get into a scrap. If someone just happens to have this clean cut image it’s just luck or maybe the real deal but that is not what the fans necessarily pay for. Dick Butkus once said in an interview that when he hit someone, he wanted them to know they’d been hit by Dick Butkus. And once hit by him they generally stayed down. I’d seen him play once or 2wice all those years ago. It’s the rough and tumble of the game and the overpaid guys who perform that get those adverts and endorsements. Not their image as boy scouts.
Finally, why should the public have any “right” to know who cheats on who and who really cares? Are we any better off if we do know who this particular player is?
For once can’t the papers just say out loud, coz we wanna sell papers and sex always sells! That’s all this is really about. This argument reminds me of those stores that open on Christmas and Thanksgiving proudly declaring that they are only open for, our convenience. Oh BS again. That’s crap and everyone knows exactly why they are open. But by saying something else, they really believe the public buys it. They think we’re all that stupid.
Either that or they think their only customers are liberals. Hmmm. Could be.
Posted by peiper
on 01/28/2010 at 04:18 PM
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Permalink • Thursday - January 14, 2010
New Champion of a new sport
Most BMEWS readers will recognize the above as the title of Col. Jeff Cooper’s book. Half of you probably own a copy. It’s a book about being a sheepdog not a sheep. It’s a book about learning to use your guns and become a “shottist”. It’s a book about situational awareness. And so many other things. I’m borrowing the title because it boils down almost the entire cowboy ethos into 8 short words. Words which show that being called a “cowboy”, or referencing “cowboy diplomacy” is a great compliment, not the insult various euro-wienies think it is.
There is a sport played with guns called Cowboy Action Shooting. That’s right. A sport. Played. With guns. And bullets!! Actually, it’s a whole series of competitive events, dreamed up by, and organized by, the Single Action Shooting Society. You have to wear cowboy style clothing, use cowboy style firearms, go by a cowboy alias, and you compete in several kinds of cowboy styled shooting, like fast draw, long range buffalo hunting (using a steel buffalo), defending the stagecoach, or robbing the bank. Great fun is had by all.
I don’t do this sport. I’ve got nothing against the costume aspect, or the firearms used. I’m a little let down by their use of extremely low powered ammunition, or even blanks for some events, but safety has to be paramount. And before today, I was only aware of one “mounted” competition, in which the folks fired off shotguns while atop a barrel “horse” up on blocks. That just didn’t sit right with me. How the heck can you be a cowboy, even a modern weekends-only just for fun kind, without an actual honest-to-God horse?
Turns out I was under-informed. There is a competition that requires horses. It’s called Mounted Shooting. It’s a cross between barrel racing and target shooting. Ride your horse around a course and shoot 10 balloons as fast as you can, with a single action six-gun in each hand. The pistols are loaded with black powder blanks, but the blast from each shot is enough to burst a balloon from 10 to 20 feet away. Sounds like great fun, and it’s probably a big hit at rodeos too! (What do I know from rodeos? I live in New Jersey. Around here the only thing ever called a rodeo is a big flea market or used car sale.)
The sport is cut up into gender, age, and skill divisions, but they have an overall championship at the end of the season. And the overall champion for 2009 ... is Kenda Lenseigne from Ellensburg, Washington.
One perfect run.
That’s all that separates Kenda Lenseigne from something extraordinary: a world championship.
She waits to enter the arena and can almost hear the tension crackling in the air.
The crowd holds its breath, waiting for her.
It’s October and this cowgirl from Sultan is one run away from beating last year’s reigning world champion in mounted shooting.
Shooting from a horse has been around since the invention of guns.
This particular cowboy skill didn’t become a sport until 15 years ago. That’s when a few modern-day cowpokes found a safe way to combine horseback riding and shooting.
It would come to be known as Cowboy Mounted Shooting and it looks like this: Competitors riding a horse on a timed course lined with 10 balloons, shooting the targets as they go. Two pistols, five shots each.
Jim Rodgers, a dedicated rider from Arizona and the father of the sport, thought up the idea of shooting blanks at balloons. That bit of inspiration made it safe for a cowboy to ride at top speed in an arena around a series of barrels, while rapidly unloading two .45 caliber single-action revolvers.
Rodgers and his friends started putting on competitions and demonstrations at rodeos. Pretty soon there were clips on cable television shows and feature stories in Western Horseman magazine.
The sport caught on quickly, says Brady Carr, one of those riders who discovered the sport in its early years.
He’s now the executive vice president of the Cowboy Mounted Shooting Association, a national organization based in Tennessee that oversees and administers the sport. “Raw Horsepower, Hard Ridin’, Straight Shootin’” the association’s Web site boasts. In 2003, the association had 2,000 members. Today, membership is close to 10,000.
The sport is a natural companion to other popular Western events like roping and barrel racing, with a ready-made base of cowboys with the skills to give it a try.
“We laughingly call it ‘cowboy cocaine,’” Carr says. “It’s an adrenaline rush.”
Read the rest of Debra Smith’s well written piece at the Everett, Washington Herald right here, which also has a nice bird’s eye view animated graphic of the event, and then jump over to my pal Mo’s blog (he’s the guy who casts those enormous lead bullets for me) to see the video from the championship.
If you can’t be a 17th century pirate, you might as well be a cowboy. Or at least live by the Cowboy Way. And that’s as good as it gets. Congratulations Kenda!
Posted by Drew458
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Permalink • Saturday - December 26, 2009
Tomorrow’s News Today
UPDATE: Over the horizon WIN for Alfa Romeo!
UPDATE 10pm: SUPERMAXI Alfa Romeo has crossed the line first in the 2009 Rolex Sydney-Hobart classic.
Neville Crichton’s 100-footer took line honours in a time of 2 days, 9 hours, 2 minutes and 10sec, crossing the line just after 10pm with its nearest rival, four-times champion Wild Oats XI, 14 nautical miles astern.
It is the first time the New Zealand supermaxi has sailed against Wild Oats XI in the Sydney to Hobart since running second to the Bob Oatley 100-footer in 2005.
The UK supermaxi ICAP Leopard’s gamble of staying East to catch a freshening breeze this afternoon failed. The breeze stayed closer to shore where Alfa and Oats picked up the faster ride.
Alfa Romeo led the race for line honours since the opening night.
Looks like they found the right winds at the right time. 14 nautical miles ahead of the competition means you could climb to the top of “twice born">Alfa’s 42.2 meter tall carbon fiber mast and still not be able to see the #2 boat ICAP Leopard (currently 16 nm behind!)
Catching the breeze has been a real problem for this race. Only a small handful of the boats were smart enough and lucky enough to find the wind. The top 6 boats, including UK’s RAN (currently about 60 nm back in 4th place) found the wind. The next group is nearly 100 nm astern, well ahead of the remaining boats in the fleet. They’re all pretty much becalmed out in the Bass Straight between Australia and Tasmania, sitting around playing cards because the wind has ceased to blow! At this point many of them are having to ration food and water; the race should have taken only 3 days at most, and after 2 and a half days they’re barely even halfway. If this continues much longer there will be a whole lot of DNFs and the boats will have to be towed home. How embarrassing!
The tiny and old Polaris of Belmont trails the pack 420 nm from the finish line, 80 nm behind the back of the rest of the pack, and has not even left the coast of Australia to enter the Bass Straight yet. That’s barely more than halfway. But to be fair, it isn’t really a racing yacht, it’s more of a cruising one.
Hey, we can’t all be snowbound, right? Biggest sailboat race of the year is underway right now, the 727 mile (1170km) Bluewater Classic race from Sydney Australia to Hobart Tasmania.
Ok, I’m not a yachting guy, but these are some high tech sailboats. And big ones too, the leaders being in the 30m - 100 foot - size bracket. Each one is crewed by a dozen or two sailors, and this race has 100 of them going as fast as they can out in the open ocean down the east coast of the Land Down Under. Well, as fast as they can when there is any wind. When there isn’t ... not so fast then. But there’s lots of tactics involved, and it’s the middle of summer for them, and it’s not another bloody soccer game.
supermaxi Alfa Romeo has opened up a five nautical mile lead in the Sydney to Hobart yacht race.
Alfa is locked a two-way tussle for the lead, with six nautical miles separating Neville Crichton’s Kiwi yacht from UK supermaxi ICAP Leopard, owned and skippered by Mike Slade, and four-times line honours winner, Wild Oats XI, skippered by Mark Richards (NSW) now 10 miles back and being challenged by maxi-chaser Ichi Ban (NSW).
The leading yachts had slowed to as little as three knots earlier this morning, little more than drifting for the 100-footers.
Alfa Romeo is sailing the rhumbline route (most direct course to Hobart) and of the three, ICAP Leopard has chosen to sail furthest east of the rhumbline as they move south.
The winning yacht is not expected in Hobart until lunch time on Tuesday, making it one of the slowest races of the past 10 years.
I gather there are two classes of boat in this race; the regular ones, and the shorter ones (about 70 feet long or even quite a bit less) that go in the handicap class.
The overall race for handicap honours was taken over by Sydney boat Shortwave, the yacht owned by the late Andrew Short, who was killed in the Flinders Islet race down the NSW Coast in October. It is being skippered by his brother Matt and crewed mostly by members of the Short family.
Tactics and crew work will decide the race, and Alfa’s crack international outfit, consisting of America’s Cup and Volvo Ocean Race veterans, could give it the edge.
“We’ve had a few years without America’s Cup sailing, which has given us the cream of the crop,” Crichton said. “They all want to be on a winning boat.”
Crichton’s skipper Mark Richards said tactics would be the key.
“It’s going to be a tricky race, nowhere near as windy as everyone thought, which is going to be a good thing for the fleet,” Richards said.
“It’s going to be testing times for all the big boats. A very tactical race, a real mindbender.”
Another supermaxi, Investec Loyal, racing as a Tasmanian entry, struck trouble early when the boat’s giant headsail ripped, and a crewman had to be sent up the forestay to retrieve it.
Loyal lost valuable ground and was seventh on the water last night, just behind fellow-supermaxi Lahana, with smaller yachts RAN (fourth) and Ichi Ban (fifth) the meat in a supermaxi sandwich.
RAN, of Britain, had an early lead in the battle for the overall handicap title.
The RAN is currently in 4th place, well ahead of the main part of the pack but nearly 40 nautical miles behind the leader Alfa Romeo. Defending champion Wild Oats XI is in 2nd 16 miles back, and Ichi Ban in 3rd.
Lots of links, plenty of pics, even a real-time yacht tracking web page, with speeds and stuff. A list of favorites, and a bit of background.
The Rolex sponsored race began at 1pm local December 26th. From what I can tell, most of the boats are built from carbon fiber and Nomex, and so are the sails. There is at least one old wood boat in the mix though. Was, perhaps. There have been a number of them pulled out due to damage. This is racing, and they’re going at it hammer and tongs, even if they’re only moving at 7mph sometimes.
Ok, who wants to make the first wisecrack about racing a supermaxi? Let’s just say it’s not the first choice of names we’d pick here in America.
Posted by Drew458
on 12/26/2009 at 11:21 PM
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Permalink • Friday - October 02, 2009
IOC Rejects The New Messiah
The International Olympic Committee on Friday eliminated Chicago and Tokyo as contenders to host the 2016 Games. Still under consideration to host the two-week sporting spectacle are Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Madrid, Spain. After the cities made their presentations to the IOC on Friday, the IOC members sat down to cast their votes in a secret ballot.
“It’s not a requirement for heads of state to come to our session,” said the IOC spokeswoman, who asked not to be named. “We are obviously very honored if they decide to come, but there’s no particular requirement.”
So we can write this little trip off as another waste of time and money by Teh One. Now that he has nothing important left to do, how about figuring out a plan of action for Afghanistan?
UPDATE: Rio gets the 2016 games. Good for them. There hasn’t been a South American Olympics in ... ever?
Better yet: pundits are seeing Oblahma & the Klingon’s quickie visit to the Netherlands as an insult. Hey, he came, he spoke about himself, he blamed Bush. Shouldn’t that be enough to get him whatever he wants?
Chicago had long been seen as a front-runner and got the highest possible level of support — from President Barack Obama himself. But he only spent a few hours in the Danish capital where the vote was held and left before the result was announced. Former IOC member Kai Holm said that the brevity of his appearance may have counted against him.
The short stopover was “too business-like,” Holm said. “It can be that some IOC members see it as a lack of respect.”
Senior Australian IOC member Kevan Gosper surmised that Asian voters may have banded together for Tokyo in the first round, at Chicago’s expense.
“I’m shocked,” Gosper said. “The whole thing doesn’t make sense other than there has been a stupid bloc vote.”
He worried that the shock exit could do “untold damage” to the already testy relations between the IOC and the U.S. Olympic Committee. They had recent flare-ups over revenue sharing and a USOC TV network.
“To have the president of the United States and his wife personally appear, then this should happen in the first round is awful and totally undeserving,” Gosper said.
The European-dominated IOC’s last two experiences in the United States were bad: the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics were sullied by a bribery scandal and logistical problems and a bombing hit the 1996 Games in Atlanta.
Obama had held out the enticing prospect of a Chicago games helping to reconnect the United States with the world after the presidency of George W. Bush. He told the IOC earlier Friday that the “full force of the White House” would be applied so “visitors from all around the world feel welcome and will come away with a sense of the incredible diversity of the American people.”
Now, Chicago can only rue what might have been. And Obama’s gamble of expending his own political capital on the bid backfired.
UPDATE UPDATE: (stolen from Michelle Malkin’s place)
This is actually a pretty good pun, because créu means to believe and to suppose. It’s also the name of the latest fad dance sweeping Rio this summer, a kind of pelvic shaking version of the macarena set to a techno amazon beat. Lots of thrustin’ goin’ on, although it mainly seems to be a man’s dance. So Brazil is using dance (it’s what they do best!) to give Obama a big old “fuck you”! Love it!
Posted by Drew458
on 10/02/2009 at 11:50 AM
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Permalink • Tuesday - September 01, 2009
Sports Innovations are not sporting
The aluminum baseball bat. The giant tennis racket. Hourglass shaped skis. Here’s a link to a Popular Mechanics story on 7 equipment inventions that changed sports.
But when you read the descriptions you’ll notice that almost all the sports groups reacted the same way: they either banned the new equipment, or severely regulated it’s use. So the “changed forever” part isn’t really all that great.
But one sport and one equipment invention that really did fundamentally alter the game was not even mentioned. And here it is:
The modern bowling ball has changed bowling forever. Prior to the mid-70s, bowling balls were solid things covered in rubber. Then somebody invented a ball covered in soft plastic. And it gripped the wooden lanes like nothing anyone had ever seen. And people began to be able to throw the ball in an arc. And scores started to climb. A few years later balls were covered in urethane, which is a kind of plastic even grippier than “poly”, which was the original plastic ball material. Then the ball designers started working on the inside of the ball, making weighted cores. And scores kept climbing. Then balls were covered in another kind of plastic called resin. Then reactive resin. Now it’s pro-active resin, and there is an entire field of surface friction technology. The latest balls aren’t just pro-active resin, or pro-active resin to which “pearl” is added (very tiny particles that work like studs on snow tires). No, they are designed so that the expanding resin foams in a specific way when it cures, so that the surface texture is of a specific kind, a specific height and width. And that texture goes all the way down, so that if you sand the ball down to get a fresh surface, it’s still the same as the original one. And the weight blocks have gone crazy. They are all designed by computer these days, and modeled extensively. Robot bowling machines test the balls every which way.
And how did the sport’s governing bodies react? In about 1979 they set a standard for surface hardness, so that smooshy soft balls were no longer legal. In 2009 they set standards for surface texture, so that balls couldn’t be excessively textured. But they still allow quite a lot of micro-texture.
And the bowling alleys have reacted too. Any good alley has nylon lanes these days. The old wooden lanes are long gone. For the professional bowlers there are now a set of 7 tricky oil patterns that the pros use, and there might soon be several more.
And scores continue to climb. And what do you know? 1 out of 6 citizens in America goes bowling at least a few times a year. Whereas skiing is dying. And tennis is at best an every-other-decade fad for the most part.
So maybe allowing the technological breakthroughs relative free reign has been a good thing. And there are no rumors of major steroid use on the pro bowling circuit.
Posted by Drew458
on 09/01/2009 at 03:35 PM
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Permalink • Thursday - August 20, 2009
Thugs and Fools
I’m starting to wonder if NFL should stand for Nutha Felon League?
Former New York Giant Plaxico Burress pleaded guilty Thursday to a weapons charge and agreed to a two-year prison term for accidentally shooting himself at a Manhattan nightclub.
The ex-wide receiver pleaded guilty to one count of attempted criminal possession of a weapon, a lesser charge than he initially faced. Under a plea agreement, he agreed to a two-year prison sentence and two years of supervised release.
Burress was indicted earlier this month on two counts of criminal possession of a weapon and one count of reckless endangerment. He faced a minimum sentence of 3 1/2 years if convicted at a trial.
The football star and former teammate Antonio Pierce were at the Latin Quarter nightclub in late November when a gun tucked into Burress’ waistband slipped down his leg and fired, shooting him in the right thigh. The bullet narrowly missed a nightclub security guard who was standing inches away, prosecutors said, lodged in the floor and was recovered by a bartender.
Geex, this guy is like 300lbs, 8 feet tall, and all muscle. And he goes to places where even he feels the need to carry a gun, laws be damned. Horry Clap. If you’re living in the area where this shooting took place ... MOVE !!!
And you know what’s going to happen. He’ll go to jail, spend the entire time there working out, have his much publicized Come To Jesus moment, be released early, and get an even bigger contract than before. Just like Michael Vick.
Funny how paroled felons in every other walk of life in our country have a hard time getting work. But in sports they go right back in. Even the sportscasters. Pretty much no matter what the crime is. Truly, you can kill people and still keep your job if you play pro sports. But don’t say the word “monkey” or you’ll be fired forever!
Posted by Drew458
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Permalink • Wow, this must be humiliating
Gender Bender in track & field?
A South African teenager will be forced to take a test to prove she is a woman after storming to victory Wednesday in the 800-meter sprint at the world championships.
Caster Semenya’s dominating run, which she won by a massive 2.45 seconds, came on the same day track and field’s ruling body said she was undergoing a gender test because of concerns she does not meet requirements to compete as a woman.
About three weeks ago, the international federation asked South African track and field authorities to conduct the verification test. Semenya had burst onto the scene by posting a world-leading time of 1:56.72 at the African junior championships in Maruitius.
Her dramatic improvement in times, muscular build and deep voice sparked speculation about her gender. Ideally, any dispute surrounding an athlete is dealt with before a major competition. But Semenya’s stunning rise from unknown teenage runner to the favorite in the 800 happened almost overnight. That meant the gender test — which takes several weeks — could not be completed in time.
The test takes several weeks? I’d figure a peek in her panties would take about 3 seconds. But I guess there’s more to it than that, and this could be the can opener that pops the lid on a whole huge can of worms. I have no idea of whether this Semenya is male or female, or even what the “requirements” of being a woman means. But if this is a border line case, then it will force the sports world to figure out what the role of the transgendered is in sporting competition. Because you can’t exclude them, even if they don’t fit easily into traditional gender categories.
And while we’re on the subject, what about elective sex changes? If a man is willing to take tons of hormone drugs and snip off his willy, does that mean he can compete in women’s events? If so, will this be the next deliberate path to sports fame? The sports world has not even been able to come to one decision about steroids, so this could be possible. Such an idea scares the peep out of me, but for some, fame and fortune is worth any price.
But that woman sure looks like a man to me.
Posted by Drew458
on 08/20/2009 at 11:48 AM
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Permalink • Tuesday - August 04, 2009
Arturo Gatti, who has been murdered aged 37. Obit appeared in paper here only today.
For those interested, check YT for the Gatti-Ward fights. Awesome fighter this fellow was.
I didn’t post the Ward fights coz I couldn’t stand or see the sense of the damn music posted along with them. Especially when the music drowned out the commentary.
This guy was a champion.
Arturo Gatti, who has been murdered aged 37, may not have been the most talented boxer in the world, but few others have captured the hearts and admiration of so many fans of the sport.
The Italian-born Canadian’s all-action style and indomitable spirit made him hugely popular, and the former world light-welterweight and super-featherweight champion will forever be remembered for his epic trilogy of fights with the American “Irish” Micky Ward.
These rip-roaring encounters – spread over a 13-month period in 2002-03 – provided 30 rounds of some of the most compelling and savage ring action in recent years.
Ward won their first encounter at Uncasville, Connecticut, on a majority decision after a point deducted from Gatti for a low blow proved crucial.
“The guy must be made of granite,” a battered Ward said afterwards. “What’s he got in his head? My hands are killing me.”
The ninth round of a contest that Ring magazine subsequently named “fight of the year” saw Gatti floored by a body shot which appeared to have broken the Canadian virtually in half.
Although Gatti somehow hauled himself upright, Ward came in for the kill – only to be rocked by a series of furious counter-attacks by a fighter, nicknamed “Thunder”, who moments earlier had seemed out on his feet.
Arturo Gatti was born in Calabria, Italy, on April 15 1972, later emigrating to Montreal with his family.
Having taken up boxing at the age of eight, he seemed destined to represent his adopted country at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics before electing to turn professional at the age of 19.
His reputation bolstered by regular appearances on HBO’s Boxing After Dark series, the crowd-pleasing fighter’s progress through the paid ranks was swift. In December 1995 Gatti outpointed the American Tracy Harris Patterson at New York’s Madison Square Garden to claim the International Boxing Federation super-featherweight title.
He defended the belt three times before relinquishing the crown to move up to the 135lb lightweight division.
Posted by peiper
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Permalink • Thursday - February 05, 2009
Fans’ fury as TV cuts away from the climax (and only goal) of Everton-Liverpool cup game…
Imagine you’re a huge fan of this (any) game and this happens.
I also had to post this cause Wardmom’s daughter is an Everton fan, and I haven’t seen anything on that team in yonks. Britspeak for a looong time.
This’d drive me up the wall were I fan of any game.
I used to be a fan of football (American) until the game passed away sometime in the 60’s I think it might have been.
And all my baseball favorites are gone now so that’s dead to me as well. I could never make up my mind if it was da bums I liked or the calls by Vince Scully, the very best who ever did that job. Hey .... I remember Bill Stern. Liked Mel Allen too. He got us kids to try White Owl cigars (radio commercials) and we got sick. Very sick. But what fun.
I have edited the article for space but if you want the whole thing, IT’S HERE
Video below but do see the article link for more pix and diagram on the site. Interesting stuff. Ya know ,,, I think I could get to like this sport. It sure seems to move fast. Kind of like our football used to. I’ve never watched a soccer game before. Do they break for commercials in soccer also?
I’m not being funny. I really don’t know.
Fans’ fury as TV cuts away from the climax (and only goal) of Everton-Liverpool cup game… to a Tic-Tac ad
By Rashid Razaq
Last updated at 1:35 PM on 05th February 2009ITV sparked a storm of protest last night after millions of viewers missed the dramatic ending of a live FA Cup match.
As the televised clash between Everton and Liverpool reached its climax, coverage of the game suddenly switched to adverts for Volkswagen cars and Tic-Tac sweets.
When the football returned, viewers were stunned to see that they had missed the only goal of the game - and were only able to see the Everton players celebrating Dan Gosling’s dramatic winner.
WHAT YOU SAW: ITV displayed this Tic-Tac advert during the crucial minute when Everton scored a last-gasp winning goal against Liverpool
Football fans immediately called for the broadcaster to be stripped of its FA Cup television rights and nearly 100 complaints were registered on the ITV website within an hour of the end of the programme.
ITV today announced it is launching an investigation into the cause of the fault, but said it was too early to say whether it had been due to human error.
Fans were angry as the match coverage cut away to adverts in the 27th minute of extra time with the fourth round replay stuck at 0-0 and heading for penalties.
ITV returned to the live action only for fans to see Everton’s goal celebrations. Host Steve Ryder apologised, laying the blame on ‘technical problems’ while ITV showed images of Everton fans at Goodison Park.
But the problems continued as ITV went to adverts again and cut back midway into a post-match interview with Gosling. After the programme the channel went to a test card for more than five minutes before resuming normal service with News at Ten.
Ryder, discussing the match with studio pundit Andy Townsend, said: ‘Well, it was a dream strike from Gosling and Liverpool’s goose was cooked, and technically I’m afraid it came at a pretty bad time for us as well. If you missed the goal our apologies for the technical problems we had at that time.
What you didn’t see: Everton’s Dan Gosling (2nd from right) shoots past Liverpool’s keeper Jose Reina to score during their FA Cup fourth round replay soccer match
Posted by peiper
on 02/05/2009 at 10:13 AM
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Permalink • Thursday - January 08, 2009
Fresno collectors uncover rare 1869 baseball card. DARN, WHAT A FIND. AWESOME! LOVE IT!
OK, I won’t go into a long routine about how dippy I get over stuff like this. You know already.
So ...my thanks and H/T to a friend, Thorolf who somehow managed to find this and send it to me.
WOW!
The front of the very first baseball card, an 1869 Peck & Snyder Cincinnati Red Stockings card, features a sepia-toned, gelatin-silver photographic print of the first professional baseball team.
By Mike Osegueda
The Fresno BeeBernice Gallego sat down one day this summer, as she does pretty much every day, and began listing items on eBay.
She dug into a box and pulled out a baseball card. She stopped for a moment and admired the picture. “Red Stocking B.B. Club of Cincinnati,” the card read, under a sepia tone photo of 10 men with their socks pulled up to their knees. The card itself was dirty and wrinkled in a few places.
It was definitely old, Gallego thought. As a collector and seller, it’s her job to spot old items that might have value today, to find the gems among the junk.
The front of the very first baseball card, an 1869 Peck & Snyder Cincinnati Red Stockings card, features a sepia-toned, gelatin-silver photographic print of the first professional baseball team.
The reverse side of the 1869 Peck & Snyder Cincinnati Red Stockings baseball card features an ad from Peck & Snyder, a sports equipment manufacturer.
It’s what Bernice, 72, and her husband, Al Gallego, 80, have been doing since 1974 at Collectique, their Tower District antique store full of old jukeboxes, slot machines and records.
This card, she figured, was worth selling on eBay.
She did what she does with most items: Took a picture, wrote a description and put it up for auction. She put a $10 price tag on it, deciding against $15 because it would have cost her an extra 20 cents.
Later that night she got a few odd inquiries—someone wanting to know whether the card was authentic, someone wanting her to end the auction and sell him the card immediately.
Hmm, she thought, this could be something special. It could be worth $50, or even $100.
Or, as Bernice Gallego came to find out in the following weeks, it could be worth a lot more.
The card is actually 139 years old. It, and a handful of others like it, are considered the first baseball cards.
Sports card collectors call the find “extremely rare” and estimate the card could fetch five, or perhaps, six figures at auction.
And Bernice was worried about 20 cents.
Instead, just like that, she is the least likely protagonist ever for a rare-baseball card story.
“I didn’t even know baseball existed that far back,” Gallego says, between puffs on her cigarette. “I don’t think that I’ve ever been to a baseball game.”
Spooked with all the questions she was getting on eBay, she picked up the phone at 9:30 that night and called her good friend George Huddleston and asked his opinion.
“I never make phone calls after 8 o’clock at night,” Gallego says. “My mother taught me never to do things like that.”
Huddleston’s answer was simple: End the auction now. Figure out what you have and what it’s worth before selling it. Her husband, Al, agreed: “Get this thing off the Internet.”
So the next morning—with no bids yet on the card—she canceled the auction. She wanted to find out more about the card.
Huddleston directed Gallego to a friend who would know what to do: Rick Mirigian, a local concert promoter and card trader who sold a rare basketball card in 2004 for $62,100.
In the meantime, Gallego didn’t want the card to get lost, so she put it in a sandwich bag and push-pinned it to her laundry room wall.
“If it fell off the wall, the cat would have ate it,” Gallego says. “Well, or the dog.”
When she met with Mirigian, she found out what the card was—an 1869 advertisement with a picture of the first professional baseball team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings.
“When I came to meet her and she took it out of a sandwich Baggie and she was smoking a cigarette, I almost fainted,” Mirigian says.
“They’ve uncovered a piece of history that few people will ever be able to imagine or comprehend. And it comes out of Fresno,” he says. “That card is history. It’s like unearthing a Mona Lisa or a Picasso.”
Mirigian’s first question to Bernice was what you might expect: Where did you get this?
I still don’t understand why she didn’t get help even before trying to sell it. I mean, hey. A baseball card dated 1869? And they sell old stuff to boot?
Oh how I’d love to own that card.
Posted by peiper
on 01/08/2009 at 12:21 PM
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Permalink • Saturday - August 30, 2008
Mugabe pays off foreign athletes?
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe on Friday handed the country’s only Olympic medalist in Beijing a $100,000 cash reward for her performance at the games.
Swimmer Kirsty Coventry smashed the world record to win gold in the women’s 200 meters backstroke. She also captured three silver medals.
Mugabe handed the U.S-based swimmer the cash at a ceremony in Harare carried live on state television.
“Our national spirit must exude joy and pleasure and say you have done well, daughter of Zimbabwe. We are proud of you, we wish you well. She’s our golden girl ... take care of her,” he said at the ceremony.
The U.S. dollars, scarce in a country struggling with an economic crisis marked by a severe shortage of foreign currency, were carried in a briefcase by Zimbabwe’s central bank governor.
Other members of Zimbabwe’s Olympic team received between $2,000 and $10,000 each.
No truth to the rumor that Coventry then had to flee the country before her lands were stolen, her farmhouse burned down, and before she was raped and mutilated as punishment for being white.
What we have here is really just a sponsorship, but it certainly points out a big hole in the Olympic rules. I think you should have to be a citizen of the country you are competing for, for at least 10 years prior to your Olympics. Otherwise you’re just a carpetbagger, and the entire concept of national representation goes out the window. Especially when you get a bag of money on national TV that represents half the host nation’s cash assets.
Posted by Drew458
on 08/30/2008 at 12:09 PM
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Permalink • Tuesday - July 03, 2007
Doing the Right Thing
I have a lot of respect for Derek Fisher, not because he’s a great player (I don’t actually follow the NBA that closely), but because of this
Fisher leaves Jazz
SALT LAKE CITY (AP)—The Utah Jazz agreed to release guard Derek Fisher from his contract Monday so he can concentrate on finding the best care for his 11-month-old daughter, who has cancer in her left eye.
“Life for me outweighs the game of basketball,” Fisher told reporters after flying from New York to meet with Jazz owner Larry H. Miller and other team executives.
“When it comes to decisions related to them,” he said of his family, “I do what’s best.”
.....
“For me and my family, we just don’t believe in it. ... I don’t think I could be the player I could be if I had to carry that load,” Fisher said.
Wiping away tears, Miller said Fisher “leaves a legacy” of leadership and toughness for Utah’s young players.
“He’s focused on the most important thing,” the owner said of Fisher’s request to leave the Jazz.
We’re praying for Tatum and your family Derek.
Posted by Mr. Christian
on 07/03/2007 at 12:13 PM
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Permalink • Saturday - May 05, 2007
Working Horse
This race was one for the record books ... but not for the reasons you might think. Street Sense came all the way from the back of the pack in 19th place to slip and slide his way to the finish line a good length and a half ahead of the 2nd place horse. Amazing. Simply amazing.
Which is why I couldn’t help but laugh as jockey Calvin Borel peed all over himself, crowed to his buddies and waved to the crowd as if he had actually done something other than ride one of the finest working horses I’ve ever seen.
Street Sense, all covered in mud from running in the back of that pack for most of the race and displaying no emotion or tiredness at all, allowed the silly little human on his back to crow exultantly and wave to the crowd as he plodded back to the winner’s circle with absolutely no concern whatsoever for the crowd around him.
He didn’t have the flash or bravura of Barbaro or the intimidation factor of Secretariat but he had what he needed and that’s all that counts. Watching that working-man’s horse plod his methodical way back to pick up a wreath of roses and head for the barn was a great thing to watch as the Queen Of England and all the NBC talking heads patted the jockey on the back and applauded the owners.
Through it all I had the sense that if that horse could talk he would have been saying, “What’s all the fuss about? I did what I did and that’s it. Now let’s all belly up to the bar. Drinks (and oats) are on me!”
Some winners have real character. This horse is one of them.
Posted by The Skipper
on 05/05/2007 at 09:26 PM
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